By Eric Henninger: 6’2” southpaw Andy Lee (28-1, 20 KO’s) is finally getting a title shot after toiling away for six years in the middleweight ranks. Lee probably would have fought for a title as early as 2008 had he not been stopped in the 7th round by Brian Vera in a surprising upset in March of that year. That defeat setback Lee a total four years, and only now Lee is getting a shot against 6-foot 180 pound WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.(45-0-1, 31 KO’s) on June 16th at the Sub Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
Not too many people are giving Lee a chance in this fight, but I think he’s got a real good chance of winning the fight as long as he doesn’t make a lot of silly mistakes, and as long we don’t see any funny stuff from the judges working the fight. You just never know unfortunately. But Lee can take things in his own hands if he keeps the 26-year-old Chavez Jr. on the outside where Chavez Jr. is a little more manageable compared to on the inside. The stork-like Lee doesn’t have the inside strength and fighting ability to beat the burly 180 pound Chavez Jr. in close.
If Lee gets trapped in one of those fights, he’ll get worn down and stopped by Chavez Jr. He’s not as big as Chavez, and he been developed since day one as an inside fighter the way that Chavez Jr. has. Additionally, Lee isn’t nearly as heavy as the cruiserweight-sized Chavez Jr. It’s a miracle that Chavez Jr. somehow is able to dehydrate down to 160 each fight without being weakened because most fighters that drop 20 pounds of water weight are dramatically weakened by the process, but Chavez Jr. does it like it’s no big deal.
Being able to fight 20 pounds over the 160 pound weight class gives Chavez Jr. a huge advantage over most fighters who weight a lot less than him. He’s able to use his extra size to dominate guys on size alone. However, being heavy like that can also hurt Chavez Jr. if Lee is able to keep moving on the outside and not let Chavez Jr. have a stationary target like he usually does. Chavez Jr. is not light on his feet, and he tires late in his fights. Lee has got to jab, use his right hook and left hand to score on Chavez Jr. and make him move than he’s accustomed to.